Slumdog Kids Promised New Digs

The two key child actors in Oscar-sweeping Slumdog Millionaire will receive new homes in Mumbai, compliments of the Indian government, Reuters reports. The children, who played the younger versions of the movie's main characters, "have brought laurels to the country, and we have been told that they live in slums which cannot even be classified as housing," said the head of the state-run housing authority.

Critics have blasted the film's creators for the continued poverty of the children as the movie reaped some $100 million. The director and producer said the children were paid above local Indian wages to act in the film, and that they were attending school for the first time, thanks to a fund set up to cover basic living expenses.
(More Slumdog Millionaire stories.)